Hot Boxes in Deseg

Foot Roasting

While no photos exist—certainly not from inside the walls—my clearest memory of disciplinary segregation (DSEG) are the cells, 76 through 90, spanning a dimly lit corridor.

It’s early in our youth, hopping barefoot on sun-baked concrete, that we experience its remarkable ability to absorb and store large amounts of heat. I didn’t discover until much later that not all hot concrete is sun-baked concrete.

The steam pipe beneath the floor, originally intended for heating, was modified with vent holes on top. The jets of pressurized steam exposed the prisoners confined above to the intense heat that rose through the cement slab.

Five guards entered I was placed in a tracheal choke and pinned to that surface by five guards. On 25 June 1981That what happened over 42 years ago , when I was prisoner 099, confined to cell C84.. I’ve withheld telling this story for over fur decades. It’s now 2024 and I am 63 years old. Only thanks to good friends, a loving family, and the grace of God, I still survive mentally and emotionally.

I still nearly cry when writing about this experience. I’ve tried before many times and failed. I’m putting forth one final effort to fulfill a solemn pledge I made to a dear companion: to bear witness, correct the record and restore my legacy.

This story is based on real persons, real events, research and documentation. People and places are named with their own names. If they are identified by initials instead of names, it is for personal considerations. If they are not named at all, it is only because memory has failed to preserve their names. But it all took place just as described here.